As a serial snacker and self-identified Breakfast Person, few pantry items get me as excited as nut butter. And while I’m totally here for the argument that the best nut butter is a good old jar of Skippy or Jif, I’m of the opinion that some of the best peanut, almond, and cashew butters out there are the ones being sold by small-batch brands. You don’t need to seek out a specialty grocery store to find them either—because so many are readily available online.
To find the best small-batch nut butters, I did what was necessary: I tasted a lot of them. From simple one-ingredient peanut butters to snickerdoodle-flavored blends, there’s something for every kind of nut butter nerd here. What’s more, I found a lot to love about the brands behind the butters, many of which are mission-driven or social impact-focused. So read on for all the best nut butters you might not see on your local grocery store’s shelves—and maybe order a few to jazz up your breakfast or snacking situation while you're at it too. In my eyes, there’s no better (or more delicious) way to add some healthy fats and plant-based protein to your daily routine.
- Enzo's Table Chocolate Almond Butter, $16 at Enzo's Table → Read more
- Big Spoon Linzer Cookie Cashew & Almond Butter, $18 at Big Spoon Roasters → Read more
- Ground Up Coconut Cardamom with Chia Seed Almond and Cashew Butter, $20 at Amazon → Read more
One Trick Pony
If you’re a peanut butter purist, allow me to introduce you to One Trick Pony. This female-founded brand is based in Washington, DC, but the secret to their peanut butter are the Argentinian peanuts they use, grown in two of the founders’ hometown of Córdoba. Their product line includes just three core varieties (smooth, crunchy, and unsalted), but for any sweet tooths out there, the brand currently has a limited-edition maple crunch flavor on offer that includes maple sugar and Valrhona white chocolate crunchy pearls. In my taste test I found each peanut butter I tried to have the ideal consistency: the smooth was luscious and drizzleable, the crunchy evenly strewn with coarsely chopped peanuts. The Argentinian peanuts lend a touch of natural sweetness, but there’s no added sugar involved here (in the core flavors, at least)—just roasted peanuts and a touch of Patagonian sea salt.
Almond butter heads, listen up: This right here is some of the best almond butter I’ve ever tried, full stop. Enzo’s Table is a family-run company based in California’s San Joaquin Valley, where the Ricchiutis have been growing and harvesting produce for over a century. Their almond butter is made from just one ingredient, estate-grown California almonds, that get lightly roasted and ground in small batches. The result is a nut butter with roasty toasty complexity and the slightest hint of natural sweetness. While separation in nut butters (and particularly almond butters, I’ve found) is totally normal, I love that this one is homogeneous when kept at room temperature, and has a consistency that’s ideal for drizzling over your morning oatmeal or a stack of pancakes.
I’m a big fan of their classic almond butter, but it’s the chocolate variety that I really can’t get enough of. If you’re imagining an almond version of Nutella here, think again. Made up of almonds, Guittard cocoa powder, Enzo’s organic extra virgin olive oil, and confectioner’s sugar, it is deeply chocolatey and decadent, without being too sweet. It has the satisfying bitterness of a bar of 85% dark chocolate (and the deep brown hue to match).
Founded by Mark and Megan Overbay in 2011, Big Spoon is one of the first small-batch nut butter brands I remember seeing out in the wild. While they began selling their products at a single farmers market, they now distribute nationwide and can be found in a number of grocers and specialty stores, like Whole Foods and Central Market. Even as they’ve grown though, they still make all of their nut butters in small batches (about 100 jars each) out of their roastery in Hillsborough, North Carolina. And, per the company’s website, prioritizing an ethical and environmentally conscious supply chain, striving for zero waste, and fairly compensating their employees are all core elements of their guiding ethos.
For the best selection of Big Spoon’s (pretty vast) range of offerings, you’re best off shopping directly from their website. At the time of writing they have a staggering 20 different nut butters to choose from. There are your classics, like peanut butter and almond butter (both of them mixed with wildflower honey), but the majority of the lineup consists of inventive flavors—think Lum Lum Thai Curry Peanut and Cashew Butter, Carrot Cake Almond and Walnut Butter, Maple Cinnamon Peanut and Pecan Butter, or their recently-released Linzer Cookie Butter (one of my favorites from my round of taste testing). The brand also makes several flavors of nut butter bars that make for a more portable option.
You won’t find any basic peanut or almond butters in their product lineup. Many of Ground Up’s nut butters feature blends of two or three different nuts, and they frequently feature coconut, which lends a lovely, slightly chunkier texture. Flavors include options like Chunky Almond, Cashew, and Coconut Nut Butter, Cinnamon Snickerdoodle, and Oregon Hazelnut Butter—but as a cardamom fiend, the Coconut Cardamom with Chia Seed Almond and Cashew Butter has my heart.
As for the company, Ground Up is a self-described “not-just-for-profit business” based in Portland, Oregon. Founded on the basis of social impact, they partner with local nonprofits to provide job training and employment opportunities to women overcoming adversity in the Portland area. And, they make some incredible nut butters.
Spread the Love
If simple, well-made, one-ingredient nut butters are what you’re after, Spread the Love fits the bill. Founded by Val and Zach Fishbain, the brand started selling nut butters at farmers markets in Los Angeles in 2014. They’ve since expanded into national retailers and Amazon, grown their team, and started a scholarship program for students in Zach’s hometown of Racine, Wisconsin. I tried the brand’s almond, peanut, and cashew butters and loved the easy-to-drizzle consistency of each—though if I had to pick, the cashew was the standout for me. It’s ultra creamy and mildly sweet, the ideal thing to spoon over waffles, blend into smoothies, dip apple slices into, or, of course, spread on toast. If you’ve got a sweet tooth, check out their chocolate hazelnut spread (sold as a “dessert butter”). Spread the Love also dabbles in jams, both flavors of which (raspberry and marionberry) contain just two ingredients: berries and sugar.
Justin’s
While some of the other options on this list are available in select grocery stores, Justin’s is probably the one you’ve seen most often. Like many other small batch nut butter brands, the eponymous founder got his start selling jars of homemade nut butter at a farmers market, this time in Boulder, Colorado. It has since expanded (and was acquired by Hormel Foods in 2016), but the brand remains committed to prioritizing sustainability, pollinator conservation, and hunger relief efforts—as well as to its mission of making high quality nut butters using mindfully-sourced ingredients.
The brand has a range of product offerings that include a variety of nut butters (all of them either peanut and almond), nut butter cups, and “chocolate candy pieces” that taste to me like M&M dupes. I’m a big fan of their individual packets, which I carried around frequently during my high school and college years. I’m partial to the Maple and Cinnamon Almond Butter flavors, which are just sweet enough to satisfy my 3 p.m. sweet treat cravings.
Rooted Fare
Rooted Fare’s hero product is technically a seed butter, I suppose. But it’s unique and quite delicious, so I didn’t think this list would be complete without it. The product in question is their Black Sesame Crunchy Butter, which is a magical mixture of black sesame seeds, soybean oil, peanuts, cane sugar, and breadcrumbs (yes, breadcrumbs) that’s equally good spread on toast as it is drizzled over ice cream. Founded by childhood friends and second-generation Chinese Americans Ashley Xie and Hedy Yu, the brand also has a rotating selection of limited-edition nut butters in flavors like Pineapple Cake Cashew Butter and Seaweed Sesame Cashew Butter. My favorite is the Chinese Almond Cookie, which also has a cashew butter base, along with crushed up bits of oat cookies and dry roasted almonds. If you, like me, love marzipan and would gladly wear almond extract as perfume, this is the flavor for you.